The newborns after birth are capable of doing all activities that are essential to sustain birth. So one can easily say that a baby can breathe, suck, swallow, hear, see, smell, eliminate waste, feel, move his head, hands and legs from the first minute. Right from the beginning, a newborn’s attention can be gotten by sharply contoured or circular shapes. This is an indication that newborn's mental curiosity is not entirely consumed by needs for comfort and food.
Physically, newborns are admittedly limited. A newborn is tiny. From head to heels, he may be about twenty-one inches long and weighs seven and one-half pounds. His head, about fourteen inches long, is almost two-thirds of his height and an inch bigger than his chest, so he is understandably awkward. Just try to imagine yourself in his shape. Even with your maturity and skill you would have a hard time getting around if your head were twice as big and your arms and legs half their size. He is bound by where you put him, and he is at the mercy of his bodily needs. His heart beats twice as fast as a grownup's, 120 beats a minute, and he breathes twice as fast as you do, about thirty three times a minute. He may urinate as many as eighteen times and move his bowels from four to seven times in twenty-four hours. He sleeps fourteen to eighteen hours of his twenty-four hour day. On the average, he is alert and comfortable for only thirty minutes in a four-hour period.
A newborn displays various reflexes after birth. These reflexes are important in understanding baby’s health and well being. So as a parent one must observe these various reflexes to understand how the baby is doing and in case you see absence of any of these reflexes, you should consult the pediatrician. Given below are some of the reflexes.
- The walking or stepping reflex
- The Moro’s or startle reflex
- Babinski’s reflex
- Shooting reflex and sucking reflex
- Palmar grasping reflex
- Tonic neck reflex
- Swimming reflex
Moving beyond reflexes, most of the newborn's physical abilities are quite limited. His preferred lying-down positions vary between a rag-doll frog-leg and half-extended arms to a fetal compression with all limbs pulled in. Twitches, jerky startles, and convulsive movements are the order of the day. In fact the difference between the movements of premature and full-term infants shows the importance of time and learning. The preemie's (prematurely born infant) jerky flailing of limbs precedes the smooth, freely cycling, self-controlled arcs of movement of a full-term baby, who less frequently displays the preemie's (prematurely born infant) movements. In contrast to slow, easy, coordinated movements of the arms, legs, and head, the baby rapidly thrusts arms and legs that suddenly flex and return to his torso.
